Author: John Curtas

HOT HOSTESS WATCH – Yellowtail

ELV is tempted to make a bad, off color pun invoking the name of the aforementioned restaurant, but in the spirit of tastefulness for which he is known, will hereby decline to do so. But these triplets* are so cute and good at their jobs that we would eat at Yellowtail even if it served only Kagoshima natto garnished with fermented umeboshi atop finely minced sakuraniku.**

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* ELV suspects they are not related, however. Just a hunch.

** Yellowtail does not serve such items. The sushi, sashimi, and Japanese fusion food it does serve is pretty nifty.

L’ATELIER DE JOEL ROBUCHON

ELV has sung the praises of L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon so many times (KNPR, KNPR, JohnMariani.com, KLAS TV et al), another rave review seems redundant. It was our Restaurant of the Year in 2006, and Chef Steve Benjamin, Pastry Chef Kamel Guechida (Bon Appetit Magazine, KNPR and KLAS TV’s Pastry Chef of the Year for 2007), along with General Manager Emmanuel Cornet, run such a tight ship that updating any of those past reviews is unnecessary. But we cruised by there last week and were as impressed as ever by the food, so we thought we’d feature some tasty snaps to inspire some serious salivatory stimulation.

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SHIBUYA – KLAS TV (CBS) Channel 8 Restaurant of the Week

Friday’s ROTW segment on the KLAS TV Morning News features all the great MGM restaurants in the opening (and the specials they run this week for Restaurant Week benefiting ThreeSquare.) From there we segue into a look at Shibuya, ELV’s favorite Japanese restaurant in town. It may not compete with the finely-tuned sushi and sashimi of Urasawa in Los Angeles, or Masa or Kuruma Zushi in New York, but for what it is — a huge restaurant in a huge hotel — the creations turned out by Chef Stephane Chevet and his raw fish brigade are mighty fine indeed. And there’s no better place to expand your sake exposure than among the 130 bottles offered here. Unfortunately, we found out after the segment aired that Ryan Steimer — Shibuya’s sake sommelier — is no longer with the restaurant. ELV regrets not giving Steimer more attention over the past year, but ELV also regrets that most restaurant employees have wanderlust that makes jazz musicians look like these guys.